An Important Announcement
Chapter 3
Daphne’s ecstasy over the night, despite being slightly disrupted by Granger so rudely ignoring her congratulations, was stronger than ever (Although she did have to concede that the first time they looked at each other, she looked rather cute while she blushed). The majority of Slytherin house couldn’t imagine having better prefects and were all expressing their pride in her and Tracey any chance they got.
Blaise rolled his eyes and snickered “Damn with all this commotion you would think you won Minister of Magic or something!”
Pansy was about to reply when Dumbledore decided to interrupt, again.
“Students, students, I have some more important announcements to make. As we know, Hogwarts is one of the most esteemed institutions in the magical world, something we take great pride in.” He said a bit dreamily. “We owe our reputation to our four founders, the great students and teachers before us, and now the wonderful staff and students of today. We owe it to you.” He said signaling to the staff and then the tables which was met with some scattered applause. Truthfully Daphne just wanted to get back to eating, what could possibly be so important that he hadn’t already said? “Due to our hard work, “we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year.”
It hadn’t even been a second before the entire hall erupted. Daphne dropped her fork and exclaimed excitedly, “he’s JOKING! HOLY SHIT HE HAS TO BE JOKING.”
Even Pansy, who had never been one for school spirit, was smiling widely, admittedly proud of Hogwarts in the moment. Across the hall, the Weasley twins could be seen practically dancing on their seats before being scolded and dragged down by McGonagall. Next to them, Daphne saw Hermione looking confused and bashful; it felt odd, usually when she saw the brunette she was also so sure of herself.
Once the hysteria died down Dumbledore decided to continue “Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament . . . well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.” Was that why Granger was confused? Maybe she just didn't know about the tournament, she was muggleborn after all “The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued.” At this, some students seemed shocked, but many were whispering excitedly to one another. “There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament,” Dumbledore continued, “none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger. Students from the other schools will be arriving soon but the volunteering and selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. The Goblet of Fire will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money.”
Adrian, Blaise, and Daphne all looked at each other knowingly, Adrian was the first to speak up. “Guys we should all go for it!” Of course this was also the sentiment of seemingly half of the Hogwarts Body, surprisingly including Tracey who also seemed eager to join. She was already talking to Adrian about possible challenges.
“Maybe they'll have us race hippogriffs!” He inquired
“No way” Tracey countered “That's way too simple for the Triwizard Tournament. It has to be something extreme, like having to make out across all of the forbidden forest in like less than an hour.”
“But there’s no way it’s that extreme, they said no more death remember?” Daphne remarked.
Pansy, who had been silent during the conversation, now spoke up, “Speaking of the literal death toll associated with this, there is no reason any of you guys should be so eager to do this!”
“Yeah guys, nooo reason, just the thousand Galleons and eternal glory.” Blaise said mocking Pansy and garnering some laughs out of everyone. Except for Pansy.
“Oh Fuck off, what the hell do we need a thousand Galleons for? And don’t talk about glory like you’re a Gryffindor, that’s their trait not ours, and it’s not a good look. And I'm serious Blaise, centuries of this competition resulting in death and you think they just made a foolproof way for that not to happen again? It’s a guinea pig experiment. Maybe it’ll be successful but why take the risk?”
Despite everyone still feeling hyper over the tournament, Pansy’s words still stung as a needed dose of reality. Daphne’s fantasy of participating was basically crushed, and honestly she didn’t mind, at the end of the day Pansy was right. Adrian seemed to agree but Tracey and Blaise looked a bit crushed.
Theo, who had basically been quiet the whole night, had noticed Blaise’s disappointment. “She’s right love, it’s ok though, even if you did get to participate, I know you would want to focus on your school and quidditch anyway. And that’s much more important than a 1-year tournament. I mean, I couldn’t name you a single champion but I could name several quidditch players.” At this, it seemed all Blaise’s disappointment dissolved, the rest of the group was focused on the “love” part of Theo’s little speech, an interesting development. One they liked though.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, ““Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, seventeen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This” — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious — “is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. Do not waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.”
Pansy smiled looking pleased. “Well there you have it, even the headmaster agreed with me and Theo.” She said playfully. Tracey shoved her a bit in return.
“And now, I PRESENT TO YOU BEAUXBATONS AND DURMSTRANG!” Dumbledore said. Every head in the hall turned towards the entrance.
Beauxbatons was first. Several students walked in, adorned in blue, obviously French inspired garments with subtle but stunning silver embroidery of flowers and intricate designs, they all quickly and elegantly sauntered forward until they were all standing in a horizontal line formation. Suddenly, several men ran through the doors flipping over said line and landing gracefully, throwing up a plethora of blue, purple, and white roses and inducing several cheers.
Must be their school colors. Ugh why do they get to be cuter than ours. Daphne thought. The show wasn’t over yet though, because quickly following the men were several more students who joined in with the line as they all danced and spun around, releasing large blue butterflies who all flocked to the flowers. Oohs and Ahhs filled the room as the beautiful scene captivated everyone's attention. The flowers slowly dispersed into glitter around the hall and the butterflies flew up towards the roof disappearing from view. The show was over and the Beauxbatons students took their seats, mostly at the Ravenclaw table.
Lucky. Daphne thought. I wish half those girls would sit with me. And it was true, she swore that some of them had to be Veela, they were stunning. Looking around she found one girl in particular that made her body heat up. Fleur Delacour.
Daphne had met her last year during a private dinner. The Delacours were a powerful French family who had a sort of monopoly of French tourism in the Wizarding world so the Greengrass's had arranged a dinner with them to expand their hotel business on some tourist sites they owned to maximize both profits. The adults had hastily sent the girls closer so they could talk business and urged them to get closer to one another to build family ties. They got closer alright. Daphne could remember it clear as day. Fleur was her first kiss after all.
Blonde’s weren't her usual type, something about the way they looked a bit like her was too off-putting, but Fleur was so hard to resist, she was part Veela after all. They had been sitting on her bed talking about jewelry and fashion and the contents of Daphne's room and whatever else they could occupy their minds with. And the whole time Fleur had been scooting closer to Daphne until she was practically on top of her. By the smirk on the older girl's face, Daph could tell she wanted it too and didn't waste a second pushing their lips together and trying (and failing) to find dominance. She could still remember how Fleur’s hair felt impossibly silky tangled up in her hands and how her warm soft lips felt on her face and neck. How she tried to go further, but was sweet and gentle when Daphne stopped her and said she wasn’t ready. The memories practically had her sweating and so hypnotized Pansy had to break her out.
“Daph, are you good? You seemed blank for a sec, I think you even missed the Durmstrang entrance.” She said
Daphne, with a face practically the same shade as a Gryffindor scarf looked around and lo and behold, she had somehow missed focusing on the Durmstrang entrance, she hadn’t even noticed they had sat down at her own table.
“Oh yeah, my bad, I just zoned out for a minute there. I’m good though.” She replied hastily, still somewhat staring at Fleur, which Pansy easily noticed.
“Oooo, staring at your first love? You feel your loins on fire again from all the passion?” Pansy teased while nudging her ribs.
Daphne rolled her eyes but smirked at the friend's antics. “Fuck off. It’s first kiss not first love . And I know everyone's too busy staring at the bloody Bulgarians but don’t talk about this stuff so openly here! Please.” And she meant it. Daphne wasn’t ashamed of her sexuality, on the contrary she loved women and flirting with them too. But she was out not open and didn’t exactly need the whole Slytherin table in on it. Pansy seemed to realize this and guiltily apologized.
Later in the night, Daphne noticed Fleur walk over to the Gryffindor table, straight to the golden trio; it seemed she was asking for more bouillabaisse. Daphne watched closely at Granger’s pretty little face, blushing a slight crimson as she stuttered a bit before clumsily giving her the soup and staring slightly at Fleur while she walked away. Now this was the second interesting development of the night. She had to be under the Veela’s thrall just now, usually Granger was so uptight and proper when addressing others. But the thrall only worked if you liked women.
Daphne scooted over to Pansy and whispered closely. “Ok so I know I just said not to talk about this here, but you think Granger likes girls?” Daphne asked smirking.
Pansy on the other hand was not as thrilled. She was actually a bit exasperated at her friend at this point. “How am I supposed to know? Not like we ever talk to the git. And get that delusional look off your face please . Even if she does, don’t try and go for her, you literally just hooked up with another girl. Besides I don’t really know Granger but it’s totally obvious she's not the type to just hook up .”
Daphne threw her hands up defensively and replied, “ Relax, do you really think of me like that? I never said I wanted to get with her, I was just trying to expand my knowledge.” She said smugly. Pansy scoffed and went back to her food. It’s not like Daphne was lying; at this point, she didn’t want to get with Granger, but this certainly made her want to get to know her better.